The fall of the USSR/Eastern Bloc in 1989-91 removed any real incentive for the Western ruling classes to make concessions to their own working classes, since capitalism no longer had a rival system to contend with, and thus no longer felt compelled to buy workers allegiances

since now there was no alternative. All sorts of brutal attacks were made on the WC and the safety net during the Clinton administration- NAFTA, welfare ‘reform’, and the repeal of Glass Steagal- however it took a decade or two for the full impact of these policies

to really sink in.

As the economic situation deteriorated, divisions within the ruling class sharpened and rivalries between rival capitalists have gotten fiercer and more violent, as ruling class factions mobilize different sections of the working class

to fight their power struggles for them. Brexit is a good example.

The coming to power of New Labour in the UK in 1997, the neoliberalized Social Democrats in Germany in 1998, and the latter part of the Mitterrand administration in France a

all followed a similar path of formerly centre left parties becoming the exposed fist of Capital.

Stalin got it right "What would happen if capital succeeded in smashing the Republic of Soviets? There would set in an era of the blackest reaction in all the capitalist and colonial countries, the working class and the oppressed peoples

would be seized by the throat, the positions of international communism would be lost."

And that's where we are now.